The present invention relates to an installation for manufacturing personalized coupons, the installation comprising a set of work stations comprising at least a station for supplying blank coupons, a station for personalizing blank coupons, and a station for cutting out personalized coupons, together with a system for transporting coupons between the various work stations.
The invention also provides a method of manufacturing a run of personalized coupons comprising at least a step of supplying blank coupons to a first work station, a step of personalizing blank coupons in a second work station, and a step of cutting out personalized coupons in a third work station, the coupons being transported successively from one work station to another.
Various types of method and installation have already been proposed for manufacturing personalized documents such as identity cards, in particular secure identity cards, such as national identity cards, driving licenses, bank cards, social security cards, and badges. Such identity cards comprise a blank coupon or medium, e.g. made of paper or of plastics material, onto which various items of personalization information are transferred, such as information making use of alphanumeric characters or information making use of photographic images. Personalization information differs from one card to another. Security elements can also be included in the blank coupons or in additional sheets that are combined with the blank coupons, e.g. with the help of chemical inks, UV varnish, luminophores, stamping. Finally, secure and personalized coupons are often laminated in plastic.
In general, existing installations are very complex, particularly because of problems of synchronizing the various successive operations that lead to the finished cards. It is necessary to avoid any slippage between successive operations, in particular between those operations involving printing on or cutting out the various cards that are manufactured in succession on the same installation.
Known methods of manufacturing identity cards also give rise to large losses of consumables (strips of paper or plastics material for receiving the personalized information, strips of plastics material for laminating), in particular because of the leader lengths that are necessary for adjusting the installations. As a result, such known installations are not suitable for manufacturing short runs of cards, since they give rise to significant losses of material and to relatively long processing time for each manufacturing run.
Existing installations do not lend themselves easily to modifying their characteristics because they are not modular in character.
The invention seeks to remedy the above-specified drawbacks and to enable personalized coupons to be manufactured with excellent quality, such as identity cards, and in particular secure cards, at a cost that is low and with great flexibility in adapting to different manufacturing methods.
The invention seeks in particular to guarantee that a card manufacturing installation operates without slippage or faults occurring during production.
The invention also seeks to make it possible to engage in the manufacture of short runs of secure and personalized identity cards quickly and without loss of raw materials.
According to the invention, these objects are achieved by an installation for manufacturing personalized coupons such as identity cards, the installation comprising a set of work stations with at least a feed station for supplying blank coupons, a personalization station for personalizing blank coupons, and a cutting-out station for cutting out personalized coupons, with a system for transporting coupons between the various work stations, the installation being characterized in that the system for transporting coupons comprises a carousel having at least one chain driven in indexed manner by motor-driven sprocket wheels, and a set of clamps mounted at a constant pitch on links of the chain and co-operating with opening/closing means placed in fixed positions, so that each clamp takes hold of an individual blank coupon, transports said coupon between the various work stations, and releases the coupon in a station for collecting the finished or semi-finished product as a personalized identity card, each clamp having a pair of jaws for clamping a marginal zone of a blank coupon in at least two regions thereof which are spaced apart from each other in the travel direction of the chain, and having external abutments secured to one or other of the jaws for laterally positioning the blank coupon held between said jaws.
The clamps can be actuated mechanically, electromechanically, magnetically, or pneumatically.
In a particular embodiment, each clamp has lateral fastenings fastening it to the chain, the fastenings being located below the plane in which a coupon is held by the jaws.
Each clamp has a central spring disposed between the bottom face of the bottom jaw and a bottom plate secured to the top jaw.
Advantageously, each clamp has vertical external abutments extending upwards and secured to the bottom jaw.
Preferably, the width of engagement between the jaws of each clamp lies in the range 3 mm to 5 mm.
In a particular embodiment, the clamp opening/closing means comprises a mechanical pusher secured to a mechanism of the crank and connecting rod type.
In another particular embodiment, the clamp opening/closing means comprise an outline of a rotating cylinder.
According to a particular feature of the present invention, the feeder station for supplying blank coupons comprises a transfer and cutting station for transferring to a clamp a segment of a strip disposed transversely relative to the chain, the strip having a succession of segments constituting blank coupons.
More particularly, the feeder station has support means for supporting a storage reel of said strip, a pair of superposed cylinders between which the strip coming from the reel is pinched and which constitute a motor-driven pulling unit, a motor-driven guillotine disposed between the motor-driven puller unit and the path of the clamps, and an optical cell for monitoring the arrival of clamps in register with blank coupons to be cut off by the guillotine from segments of strip and to be held by the clamp actuated by clamp opening/closing means disposed in the vicinity of the feeder station and synchronized with the indexed advance of the chain.
The feeder station can alternatively comprise a charger of pre-cut-out blank coupons and handling means, e.g. of the suction cup type, for feeding a clamp situated at the feeder station with a blank coupon during each pause period in the cyclic operating cycle of the installation.
Advantageously, the installation of the invention has code marks on each of the clamps.
At least one coupon personalizing station can be constituted by a printer station for individualized printing on at least one of the faces of the coupons transported by the clamps.
In a particular embodiment, the card manufacturing installation comprises a pre-cutting-out station for personalized coupons, a suction cup mechanism for individually transferring pre-cut-out personalized coupons to a laminating station fed with top and bottom strips of plastics material inserted parallel to the travel direction of the pre-cut-out personalized coupons, and a station for cutting out and recovering finished personalized cards with the residual skeleton of strips of plastic material that remains after finished personalized cards have been cut out therefrom being removed and wound in a reel-forming station.
Under such circumstances, the laminating station can comprise a pair of heating shoes located where a pre-cut-out personalized coupon is inserted between said top and bottom strips of plastics material, two pairs of motor-driven cylinders that are pressed together to laminate and heat-seal a pre-cut-out personalized coupon with the top and bottom strips of plastics material, and cooling fans.
In another particular embodiment, the card manufacturing installation comprises a pre-laminating station with top and bottom rolls for supplying strips of plastics material perpendicularly to the travel direction of the chain to form a folder that encloses an insert constituted by a pre-cut-out personalized coupon held by a clamp, and a laminating station acting on the assembly constituted by said folder and its insert held by a clamp.
The pre-laminating station comprises a device for feeding to strips of plastics material with only a first longitudinal edge of each of the strips passing via a heating shoe prior to the two strips being driven through a pair of motor-driven rollers which seal the two strips together via their first longitudinal edges so as to form a double film that is held open by a spacer prior to receiving said insert and constituting a folder after being cut by a device for cutting the double film transversely so as to form a sandwich driven towards a laminating station by the central insert held by a clamp.
Advantageously, each of the strips of plastics material is constituted by a film of a base material such as polyester provided with a coating layer compatible with the insert and favoring heat-sealing, such as polyethylene, and the top and bottom strips of plastics material have their coating layers facing each other.
In another particular embodiment, the card manufacturing installation comprises a laminating station having first and second perforated metal bands welded to form endless loops and motor-driven by a set of four cylinders of which two non-opposing cylinders are fitted laterally with sprocket wheels, the first and second metal bands presenting respective parallel path portions in which they hold at least one assembly constituted by said folder and its insert held by a clamp, said parallel path portions passing successively via heating shoes, a pair of laminating cylinders, and cooling means.
The drive members of the laminating station are synchronized with the indexed drive of the main chain for transporting the clamps in such a manner that the perforated metal bands and the chain advance simultaneously and through the same distance.
Advantageously, the first and second perforated endless bands have loop-closure means of thickness smaller than the thickness of an assembly constituted by a folder and its insert, which means are disposed in offset manner on the first and second metal bands so as to be situated in empty gaps between two successive assemblies, each comprising a folder and its insert.
Preferably, the pitch of the perforations in the metal bands is identical to the pitch of the links in the chain fitted with the clamps.
In another particular embodiment, the card manufacturing installation comprises an auxiliary closed-loop chain driven in indexed manner by motor-driven sprocket wheels and fitted with a set of auxiliary clamps mounted at a constant pitch on links of the auxiliary chain, and a main closed-loop chain driven in indexed manner by motor-driven sprocket wheels synchronously with the auxiliary chain and fitted with a set of main clamps mounted at a constant pitch on links of the main chain.
In which case, in an application to an installation for manufacturing cards that enable personalization data to be applied photographically, the auxiliary chain moves successively via a feeder station for supplying photosensitive negative coupons, a photographic station for transferring personalization data onto the photosensitive negative coupons, a developer station for developing the negative coupons by dipping them in an activator bath, and a superposition station for pressing the negative coupons onto respective positive blank coupons supplied by a feeder station for supplying positive blank coupons, and clamp opening/closing means are disposed at least at the negative coupon feeder station and the superposition station for pressing negative coupons against respective positive blank coupons.
The main chain moves successively via at least a feeder station for supplying positive blank coupons, a pre-wetting station, a superposition station for pressing negative coupons against respective positive blank coupons, a transfer and development zone in which the negative coupons are superposed on the positive blank coupons to enable respective images to be transferred from the negative coupons onto the positive blank coupons, a removal station for removing the negative coupons by mechanically peeling them off the positive blank coupons, a washing station for washing the positive coupons by dipping them in a bath of water, a first drying press station, a stabilizing station for dipping the coupons in a stabilizer bath, a second drying press station, and a drier station.
More particularly, the superposition station for pressing negative coupons against respective positive blank coupons comprises a pair of drive gears fitted with spacer cams and secured to transmission shafts of a pair of pressing and transfer cylinders between which a negative coupon superposed on a positive blank coupon are inserted while held by respective clamps driven by the auxiliary chain and the main chain, at least one of spacer cams being provided with an annular positioning slot and a spacer projection.
In another particular embodiment, the station for removing negative coupons by mechanical peeling comprises a set of three motor-driven round belts acting on an edge of each negative coupon that was previously clamped in a clamp of the auxiliary chain and that projects a little from the positive coupon from its side remote from the clamp holding the positive coupon.
The installation of the present invention makes it possible to introduce personalization data both by photography and by printing and also to combine both types of technique on a single manufacturing line.
In a particular embodiment, the card manufacturing installation comprises a print station for printing personalization data on blank coupons by means of a thermal transfer tape supplied transversely relative to the travel direction of the chain transporting the blank coupons, and removed after each blank coupon has been printed, likewise transversely relative to the travel direction of the chain transporting the blank coupons.
The print station for printing personalization data comprises a device for unwinding the thermal transfer tape at constant tension from a reel, which unwinder device itself comprises a friction support acting on the reel or its core, first and second presser cylinders between which the unreeled thermal transfer tape is inserted, at least one torque generator coupled to one of the shafts of the first and second cylinders and connected to a frame of the unwinder device by an antirotation member.
The printer station for printing personalization data comprises a constant-tension winding device, which device has first and second superposed cylinders pulling the thermal transfer tape after it has gone past a print head, at least one torque generator associated with the drive shaft that drives one of the first and second cylinders, and a motor and gear box unit for rotating both the torque generator and a core for receiving the tape to be wound into a reel around said core after it has been pulled by passing between said first and second cylinders.
In a variant embodiment, the printer station for printing personalization data contains a reel storing thermal transfer tape and a reel for receiving thermal transfer tape, the diameters of the reels when full being no greater than about three times their diameters when in the empty state, the storage and reception reels being situated on either side of a print head, a torque generator is coupled directly to the support core of the storage reel and is connected to the support frame of said core via an antirotation member, and a torque generator associated with a drive member is coupled directly to the support core of the reception reel.
The blank coupons can be made of paper or of plastics material. Nevertheless, the blank coupons can also be made in the form of plates that include, where appropriate, electronic circuit elements, such as an integrated circuit and an antenna coil, for example.
The invention also provides a method of manufacturing a run of personalized coupons such as identity cards, the method comprising at least a step of supplying blank coupons to a first work station, a step of personalizing the blank coupons in a second work station, and a step of cutting out personalized coupons in a third work station, the coupons being transported from one work station to another in succession, the method being characterized in that the coupons are transported from one work station to another individually by means of clamps mounted at a constant pitch on links of a chain driven in indexed manner round a closed circuit, and in that each clamped and transported coupon is held along one of its marginal zones, at least in two regions thereof, which regions are spaced apart from each other in the travel direction of the chain, while nevertheless both co-operating with the same clamp.
The step of supplying blank coupons may comprise, level with a clamp brought to a feeder station, transferring and cutting off a segment of strip placed transversely relative to the chain and having a succession of segments constituting blank coupons.
The supply step can also be performed from a stack of pre-cut-out blank coupons.
According to a particular feature of the invention, the step of personalizing a blank coupon comprises unwinding a thermal transfer tape at constant tension from a storage reel and bringing it into register with a print head, transferring personalization data by printing with the print head on a blank coupon superposed with the thermal transfer tape, and removing the thermal transfer tape by pulling it at constant tension prior to winding it onto a reception reel.
In a particular implementation, the method includes a step of laminating a coupon, and prior to the laminating step, each coupon held by a clamp is inserted into a folder constituted by a doubled film assembly made from two segments of plastics material strip fed perpendicularly to the travel direction of the chain and sealed together along a single longitudinal edge thereof, which edge is situated in front of the corresponding coupon in the travel direction of the coupon.
In another particular implementation, the method comprises a step of laminating a coupon, and prior to the laminating step, each coupon held by a clamp is released from the clamp by being cut out and taken hold of by a moving suction cup so as to be transported individually to a laminating station fed with plastics material in the form of top and bottom strips that are inserted parallel to the travel direction of the moving suction cups.
According to yet another feature of the invention, the method of manufacturing identity cards comprises a step of forming and transporting negative coupons each held in a marginal zone at at least two regions thereof that are spaced apart from each other in the travel direction of a closed loop auxiliary chain by means of a clamp transported by the indexed-advance auxiliary chain, a step of forming and transporting positive blank coupons each held in a marginal zone at at least two regions thereof that are spaced apart from each other in the travel direction of the closed loop main chain by means of a clamp transported by the indexed-advance main chain, a step of superposing a negative coupon and a positive blank coupon and of pressing them together, a step of transporting a superposed positive coupon and negative coupon by means of the single clamp transported by the main chain, a step of removing the negative coupon by mechanically unpeeling it, and a step of transporting and treating the positive coupon on its own by means of the clamp transported by the main chain.